William A. Seiter

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia William A Seiter June 10 1890 July 26 1964 was an American film director He was born in New York City After attending Hudson River Military Academy Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Sennetts Keystone Studios doubling a cowboy He graduated to director in 1918 At Universal Studios in the mid1920s Seiter was principal director of the popular Reginald Denny vehicles most of which costarred Seiters then wife Laura La Plante his second wife was actress Marian Nixon This period also included The Beautiful and Damned and The Family Secret In the early talkie era Seiter helped nurture the talents of RKOs comedy duo Wheeler Woolsey in such rollicking features as Caught Plastered 1931 and Diplomaniacs 1933 He also directed the Laurel and Hardy feature Sons of the Desert 1933 their only film together Other films include Sunny Going Wild Kiss Me Again Hot Saturday Way Back Home Girl Crazy Rafter Romance Roberta Room Service Susannah of the Mounties Allegheny Uprising You Were Never Lovelier Up in Central Park and One Touch of Venus Among the many stars directed by Seiter during his long career were Shirley Temple Fred Astaire Ginger Rogers Henry Fonda Margaret Sullavan Jack Haley Deanna Durbin Jean Arthur John Wayne Fred MacMurray Lucille Ball Rita Hayworth and the Marx Brothers While many of his films were minor gems Seiter was capable of turning out bad movies once in a while For example if he ran into friction from his staras was the case with Lou Costello in 1946s Little Giant Seiter would get even by adhering religiously to the script refusing to add any nuance or creativity to the project this pettiness may have been the reason that one prominent actress of the 1930s referred to Seiter as the most unimaginative director shed ever worked with On his final four films before he retired in 1954 Seiter functioned as both producer and director These films included The Lady Wants Mink 1953 a gentle satire of the then topical raise your own coat craze He died in Beverly Hills California of a heart attack aged 74